Hypericum

Well-known by its herbal name, St. John’s Wort, Hypericum is best known for its use in nerve injuries.

There are many remedies available for acute injuries in dogs, including Hypericum.

For acute and general bruising and soreness and shock, Arnica usually fits the bill. For acute muscle and tendon strains, bone bruises or joint injury, Ruta is an excellent fit and Rhus tox may also be considered. For more persistent symptoms, there is Calcarea carb.

Hypericum is in a different class from these remedies. It is a great remedy for wounds to the nerves, especially in the toes and nails. Other nerve-rich areas include the face, mouth and tail. These types of injuries can include bites or puncture wounds, crushing injuries or torn nails.

Both Hypericum and Ledum are similar in their makeup and should be considered when an injury is inflammatory and in a nerve-rich area. In puncture wounds, Ledum might be considered a better fit whereas Hypericum would be considered for lacerations, especially in nerve-rich areas.

Rhus tox and Calcarea are often considered for back pain, but when the pain is acute, Hypericum will be indicated. Studies at New York University that Hypericum has anti-viral properties. It is important in preventing tetanus in puncture wounds (Ledum will also have this quality but has an earlier preventive action).

Injuries that might respond well to Hypericum include:

A paw or tail mistakenly closed in a door

Torn dewclaws

The pain from bleeding nails when the quick is mistakenly cut when clipping nails

Any bite wound, especially lacerations and wounds to nerve rich areas such as the mouth, face, feet or tail

Can be considered for head injuries

The first remedy to consider for acute injuries to the spine

Surgical incisions, especially after spay

Painful boils or abscesses without pus

Broken or painful teeth

First and second degree burns

If you are building an emergency kit of homeopathic remedies, make sure it contains the very useful Hypericum! Either a 30C or 200C potency should work fine.

GIVING HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES

Homeopathic remedies need to melt on the gums so they should not be hidden in a treat or in food. Our dogs have a built in pouch on the side of their mouth and the remedies can go right in there.

Try not to handle the remedies but drop them straight from the bottle into your dog’s cheek.

Remedies come in tiny white pellet or liquid form. Either form can be placed directly into your dogs cheek.

It’s not important if you give one drop of the remedy or five or one homeopathic pellet or three because homeopathy is an energy medicine and there is typically none of the physical substance left in the remedy. One tiny white pellet could treat an elephant and 10 pellets could treat a mouse. That’s a hard one to digest, if you’ll excuse my pun, but people are always worried about how much to give and how often to give. The amount is no big deal and you give it until they get better. If it’s not working at all, you stop giving the remedy. We’re all just too used to using antibiotics that have to be calculated to the weight of the dog and have a certain time they need to be given. This is simply not the case with homeopathy.

Because homeopathy is an energy medicine the remedies should not be stored next to heavy electromagnetic appliances such as televisions and computers or left in the bright hot sun for a long time.

WHAT DOSE SHOULD I GIVE ?

Unlike drugs, Homeopathy does not work by body weight (e.g., give 500 mg per 25 pounds of body weight). With Homeopathy, the original physical substance is sequentially diluted and this is why you have the funny numbers after the name of the remedy. Arnica 6x does not mean that you have to give it six times! It means that the remedy has been diluted six times. To confound you even more, the more dilute the remedy the more powerful it is, so very highly diluted remedies are usually only available to doctors. The potencies most commonly available to you are 6x and 30x (diluted 1/10 either 6 or 30 times) and 6c and 30c ( diluted 1/100 either 6 or 30 times).

Dana Scott is the Founder and CEO of Dogs Naturally Magazine. She also breeds award winning Labrador Retrievers under the Fallriver prefix. Dana has been a raw feeding, natural rearing breeder since the 90's and is a sought after speaker and outspoken advocate for natural health care for dogs and people. Dana works tirelessly to educate pet owners so they can influence veterinary medicine and change current vaccine, food and preventive health practices. Visit Dana's Labradors at Fallriver Labs

The content on this website is not meant to replace veterinary advice. Please support the hard working holistic vets who make this information possible. To find a holistic or homeopathic vet near you or to find one who will do phone consultations, visit The Academy Of Veterinary Homeopathy

Copyright 2018 Dogs Naturally Magazine Inc.The information in this website is not intended to replace veterinary care. However the purpose of Dogs Naturally is to show you how important it is to work with a holistic vet.